Display on W530 - 95% wide gamut?

Is the display on W530 95% wide gamut?

 

The 1080p screen is.

 

Thanks cause I didn't see it mentioned anywhere on the site unless I missed it.

 

Yep, it has the same FHD 95% gamut screen as the W520 and W510. It's mentioned at a few places on the Lenovo site and on the second page of this tech specs PDF (under "Engaging User Experience").

 

Can someone post a MonInfo report from the W530's FHD screen?
EnTech Taiwan | Utilities | Monitor Asset Manager

Strange that Lenovo offers a screen what's production has been discontinued years ago. The build date must be interesting on the W530 screens. I'd guess that Lenovo just bought up all the remainding B156HW01 V4 screens.

 

Monitor
Windows description...... ThinkPad Display 1920x1080
Manufacturer............. Lenovo
Plug and Play ID......... LEN40B2
Data string.............. B156HW01 V4
Serial number............ n/a
Manufacture date......... 2009, ISO week 1
Filter driver............ Monitor
-------------------------
EDID revision............ 1.3
Input signal type........ Digital
Color bit depth.......... Undefined
Display type............. RGB color
Screen size.............. 340 x 190 mm (15.3 in)
Power management......... Standby, Suspend, Active off/sleep
Extension blocs.......... None
-------------------------
DDC/CI................... n/a

Color characteristics
Default color space...... Non-sRGB
Display gamma............ 2.20
Red chromaticity......... Rx 0.676 - Ry 0.314
Green chromaticity....... Gx 0.215 - Gy 0.665
Blue chromaticity........ Bx 0.141 - By 0.069
White point (default).... Wx 0.313 - Wy 0.329
Additional descriptors... None

Timing characteristics
Range limits............. Not available
GTF standard............. Not supported
Additional descriptors... None
Preferred timing......... Yes
Native/preferred timing.. 1920x1080p at 60Hz (16:9)
Modeline............... "1920x1080" 142.000 1920 1980 2028 2112 1080 1083 1084 1120 -hsync -vsync
Detailed timing #1....... 1920x1080p at 50Hz (16:9)
Modeline............... "1920x1080" 142.000 1920 1980 2028 2308 1080 1083 1084 1230 -hsync -vsync

Standard timings supported

Report information
Date generated........... 7/6/2012
Software revision........ 2.60.0.972
Data source.............. Registry-Active
Operating system......... 6.1.7601.2.Service Pack 1

 

Thanks, it's the same as mine. So it's the good old stock!

 

The manufacture date is odd, but I have no complaints. It is a little funny that laptop displays are progressing so slowly that you can put a 3 year old panel in a new laptop, and it is still better than 95% of the competition. Could you imagine the outrage if companies started using 3 year old CPUs and GPUs?

 

I think the week field is just dummy, as it's the same as mine (2009, 1st week), but the year might be right.

For the reason why the displays are where they are and why on earth would AUO stop manufacturing it's only panel what is better then the competition, I'd only guess that Apple's tactics are behind it, but it's just my opinion. At least with the FHD IPS option from Asus, there is some hope!

 

It's supply and demand. You can't make cheap laptops with $300 displays. The sub $800 laptop category makes up the majority of sales for most of the major laptop manufacturers. The enthusiast, power user, and gaming markets are a very small piece of the pie.

I'm not an Apple fan, but I recognize that they are creating a higher consumer demand for high quality displays, This will slowly benefit non-Apple users as the display technology that goes into current Apple displays will become cheaper. And, once Apple migrates to a newer, better technology the previous tech will become available to the those outside of the Apple religion. Hopefully Apple will adopt an energy efficient display technology next, instead of the power hogs they recently introduced.

 

Are you referring to the Retina displays on the iPad and MacBook Pro?

 

They are just dreaming about it. The problem is that no matter what they do, IPS displays use a lot of power. That's why the design of the iPad 3: it's just one huge battery with some circuit board on the top. All this, to power up that screen.

I just really cannot find any reason why on earth would AUO stop producing their only LCD what was clearly better then anything from the competition. The demand was there: Lenovo T and W line, all Sager/Clevo and barebones laptops, etc. No one would ever stop in such a situation. They should have invested in lowering the power usage, making the viewing angles even better, etc.

 

They have quite a few other 6-bit TN 1920x1080 panels in production now, according to Global Panel Exchange Center - Panelook.com .

But I really hope Lenovo will run out of these panels by W540 release time, and put a better one instead. Even if it will consume a few watts more on max brightness.

 

The new ones are all standard gamut and with much worse viewing angles compared to the old ones.

 

If that's the panel on th W530 then this site lists it as 6-bit and 262K colors not 16.7M colors. Doesn't look like a wide gamut screen. Is it correct?

AUO B156HW01 V4 Overview - Panelook.com

 

Yes. Apple has had to to introduce significantly bigger batteries than the their previous models to support them, and those devices still get worse battery life than their predecessors.

IGZO tech from Sharp appears to show some promise in creating high-res, low power displays. Time will tell though. I'm waiting to here some more news on Quantum Dot technology, but I imagine that is probably a 5-10 years away from mass production.

 

I don't know much about the color spaces, but according to Anandtech and Notebookcheck this panel has between 1.1 and 1.2 million colors, which far exceeds that of most other laptop LCDs.

 

So then the W530 doesn't have an IPS screen? I thought that's one of the reasons why we're willing to pay a premium for a Thinkpad. The W530 screen can only display 262,000 colors.

 

I did some searching and it seems these are the ONLY laptops with an IPS screen

Laptop Guide: Advantages of IPS Display Laptops and Where to Find Them

The only Thinkpad on that list is the X220.

 

It's not an IPS, but performs like one, with the exception of viewing angles.

If you want a great IPS display, I would suggest the HP Elitebook. It's about $1000-$1500 more for a similarly configured HP Elitebook with the $500 IPS display option. You won't have Optimus tech, and will have to carry around a 200W power brick, and you can expect about only 2 hours of battery life from an 84WHr battery. It's Dreamcolor display gets great reviews though, and the build quality is unmatched for it's size.

 

Yeah I was just looking at the Elitebook. With a similar configuration to a W530
with a similar 3 year accidental damage warranty it will cost $3300.
Then there's coupons to get the price down, maybe $400 off.


Funny though, the first Thinkpad I bought, the A31p, I think had an IPS screen with wide viewing angles. Display was amazing even for a 10 yr old laptop. Now IPS displays are almost gone.

Edit: Don't need Optimus tech with an AMD FirePro discrete graphics which is an option

 

Or the new Asus ultrabooks! They have absolutely amazing FHD screen, better than Sony Z!
Asus Zenbook Prime UX31A review | The Verge

 

The problem with the Zenbook is it's not a workstation class performance laptop and the screen is I think glossy. Glossy is a waste of money.

 

"and best of all, matte 1080p IPS displays... even on the 11-inch model." from http://www.theverge.com/2012/7/5/3135319/asus-zenbook-prime-ux31a-review

 

Aren't we missing something?

One thing I want to know is whether the W530's panel is 95% of the aRGB gamut. They no longer advertise it being 95% of a specific colour space (compared to W520, at least in their unboxing video). 95% colour gamut really doesn't mean much if you don't know what colour space that measurement is from.

 

Based on the Anandtech review that I linked earlier in the thread of a Clevo laptop using the same model panel, it covered 97.6% of the AdobeRGB gamut. We also verified that the W530 uses the same panel as the W520 as well, which has been verified by Notebookcheck to cover roughly 95% of the AdobeRGB gamut.

 

Wide-gamut almost always refers to AdobeRGB. So a 95% wide gamut monitor means 95% of AdobeRGB.

 

What sucks is that in the HP Elitebook going from FHD to a 30-bit IPS screen that covers 114% of AdobeRGB is $450.

Would you pay $450 extra for a 30-bit IPS display on the Thinkpad W530? I might if they offered it.

 

That's still an FHD screen

 

They call it the DreamColor display and yes it is FHD. It can display over 1 billion colors rather than 262,000 that the W530 can. The W530 would have to dither colors to create the illusion of more colors but that sucks (it's what most laptops do).

 

6-bit is not a problem, you don't see the dithering on the AUO. The only problem with that screen is the viewing angle, as it's not in the IPS category.

What you are talking about would be a problem with very smooth gradients. It's not something you'd see by looking at a photo in general.

 

The vast majority, like 99% of the people, won't. That's why Lenovo doesn't bother to offer it.

For $450, you are almost in the $749 territory to get a Dell Ultrasharp U2711 27" IPS LCD panel.

 

i dont even know what an IPS panel is. prob 99% ppl don't either.

yet, someone who does know what it is and actually wants it, still only says that he "MIGHT" pay the extra money for it

 

Most people cant even tell if the black on screen is black or grey if that matters.

 

Yes, and there are cheaper options, but it's really apples to oranges.

Laptop screen is very rarely a thing of choice for any kind of color/photography/video work, and most of the other work really (from spreadsheets to programming). Not only it's physically very small compared to the alternatives, it's also inconveniently attached to the keyboard, mandates a wrong posture etc. etc.

However, there are situations when mobility is more important than all that, and alternatives with extra 10kg+ and 100W+ of power consumption just do not matter.

I'd, for one, would happily pay $500 premium over the basic LCD, to get a decent 8-10 bit matte 1920x1080 IPS panel in my W520, instead of the FHD (which isn't bad), precisely for the situations when the laptop is not used on the desk, with external monitors/keyboard/mouse etc. Most users won't care, of course. But even more users, myself included, will never notice in practice the performance difference between 3820QM and 3920QM, but this +$500 option is offered, and there was significant design cost to make it happen.

 

I would argue that the "design cost" for the XM processor is the research and development that Intel did on the whole Ivy Bridge series and not quite the same as with different screen options. However, your point is understood.

To the best of my knowledge, the HP Dreamcolor screens are the only 10-bit screens on notebook computers today, and it would not surprise me if they have some kind of anti-competition clause in their agreement with the LCD supplier, similar to how Apple presumably has an agreement with the LCD supplier for the Retina Macbook Pro. In other words, even if Lenovo or somebody else wanted to offer the option of a 10-bit IPS screen on their systems, they would have to develop their own supply chain, since HP owns the only existing one.

 

AFAIK Dell M4600/M6600 uses the same panels.

 

Interesting

 

It was $675 from Dell the other day.

Last time I checked, IPS panels are not great with blacks when compared to TN and VA panels. They are also susceptible to IPS glow when displaying dark images. Overall, though, I definitely prefer my Dell Ultrasharp U2312HM to my old BenQ 2220HD, which was actually $11 more than the U2312HM when I got it like 2.5 years ago ($190).

 

I think you haven't seen this video:
Display: TN vs. IPS at Lenovo Thinkpad X220 - YouTube

IPS are _way_ better in blacks and the IPS glow is nothing compared to the "greyness" of the typical TN panels.

 

OK, may be 10 bit IPS screen is a specialized hardware, and is hard to produce, and there is little benefit in most applications, and for customers who don't calibrate their screens, anyway.

However, according to panelinfo.com, there is no shortage of 15.6" IPS panels with 1920x1080, from different manufactures.

 

Five (and possibly more) pages of meandering comments in responding to this initial question?



Maybe the question was vague. OK, do you mean the FHD display on the W530? According to the Lenovo ThinkPad W530 Datasheet, yes.



Please, any further opinions on resolution, aspect ratio, viewing angle, TN, IPS, DreamColor, Retina, power consumption, consumer need, supply chain, bit depth, lookup table, whatever, should go to another thread elsewhere.

 

I think it's just needs to be renamed to "Lenovo FHD screen discussion". Can any mod do that?

 

In fairness to the OP, please go ahead and start a new thread if it is deemed relevant and important.

 

If the OP so requests, then yes. Until then, it will stay as is.

 

http://www.lenovo.com/psref/pdf/tabook.pdf states the following:

"15.6" (396mm) Full HD (1920x1080) color, anti-glare, LED backlight,
270 nits, 16:9 aspect ratio, 500:1 contrast ratio, 95% Gamut"

Any additional questions?

 

I have an HP IPS 30" monitor with wide gamut. If you compare it to a normal gamut monitor you can definitely see the difference.

They used to offer IPS panels in previous models (probably when the were owned by IBM). You just can't get accurate colors on a TN display like on the current Thinkpads even if they're wide gamuts. I need it for photo processing.
Most people who just browse the web, write docs or spreadsheets, or CAD probably don't need an IPS screen.

 

That's cause I just noticed that the HP Elitebook has an option for an AMD Firepro M4000 discrete graphics card and I prefer AMD graphics over Nvidia if it's an option.

 

What? The question was answered in the first response. Then we verified that it is the same panel as is in the W520, which already has plenty of reviews on various websites. Then we clarified that it is 95% of the AdobeRGB gamut, which Lenovo didn't specify color space. If you wanted a simple answer though, look at the first response on page one.

 

Checked.

Checked.

Checked.

So, what are we going to do now? Reconfirm the above in the next pages?